This is a multi-level, multi-disciplinary, and interdisciplinary project to examine stress and coping in older adults with a focus on Hispanic seniors. Using mixed qualitative and quantitative methodologies, biological measures of stress (cortisol, IL-6, IL-10), along with attitudinal and quality of life measures, we will investigate the psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) of stress and coping in three settings. These are: an inpatient rehabilitation setting in which music therapy will be used as stress mitigating intervention; a Mexican American community setting located near a large petrochemical complex; and nursing home and assisted living extended care facilities. Four pilot projects are described that expand the scope of questions and measures of existing funded projects. A developmental project is proposed to assess the factors causing translational blocks between the research supporting mind-body medicine (MBM), its clinical application, and its utility as a community intervention. Two core components are proposed. The first is an administrative infrastructure, the Integrative Medicine and Biobehavioral Research Section (IMBRS) including an academic and computer core housing resources and informatics capacities in MBM. The second component is a longitudinal investigator development project to develop mentoring relationships, provide essential research skills in MBM, acquire the tools and techniques of clinical research, and to develop technical writing and grantsmanship competencies. We anticipate that this multi-layered approach will result in increased capacity at UTMB to produce high quality MBM research, to qualify for future funding, and to produce a cadre of interdisciplinary MBM researchers. By building on our existing projects and our strengths in the study of Hispanic populations, we believe this is a unique and broad based project with high likelihood of success. Through these efforts we expect to favorably impact health care outcomes of our patient population through enhanced understanding of the principles of MBM, PNI, stress and coping mechanisms in healthy aging in older Hispanics. We will also generate new studies in the field of MBM related not only to Geriatrics but also to other populations and age ranges.
